


Children, Behave

by annabeeus



Category: Big Mouth (Cartoon)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Maybe Mildly OC? I Don't Know, Multi, POV Alternating, POV Outsider, Wordcount: 10.000-30.000, in this fic they live in south jersey, too long, we out here ignoring 'my furry valentine' canon, whoops, yes i know they canonly live in ny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-19
Updated: 2019-03-19
Packaged: 2019-11-17 18:31:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18104048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/annabeeus/pseuds/annabeeus
Summary: Matthew and Jay had never been very good at keeping secrets. (Or, five times one of their friends found out about their relationship, and the one time they publicly came out).





	Children, Behave

**Author's Note:**

> unbeta'd! i'm sorry if there are any grammar mistakes
> 
> also, the hormone monsters are nonexistent in this, mostly because i cannot bring myself to write for them. - annie

**1: JESSI (ARTSY)**

She liked to pride herself on being one of the more observant people in their friend group. After going through both her parent’s divorce and her mother’s remarriage to Dina, Jessi had adapted to having a keen eye. Still, she hadn’t seen this coming.

 

Despite the Bat Mitzvah Incident being one she and her friends rarely spoke on, they still seemed to think they needed to make up for an event she’d rather pretend never happened in the first place. So for her fourteenth birthday Jessi found herself wedged between Andrew and Nick on a crowded bus down to Philadelphia, forty bucks from her mother in her jeans back pocket and seven all-day passes into the PMoA. Connie, thankfully, was absent, having decided to give her a much-needed day off from puberty. Of course, not without leaving her with terrible growing pains in her already very long legs. Too many strangers were asking Jessi if she played basketball. Too. Many.

 

They got off the bus and into the building around nine, Jessi using her status as The Group Adult/The Tallest to check them in. Nick had become distracted by the prospects of a gift shop (despite the nearest being on the second level) immediately upon entry. Gina had followed, being the good - girlfriend? - friend she was, and the two were stopped by security before they could even make it up the steps. Andrew was pestering Missy to gather enough courage between the two of them to ask for those headphones with the guided tour. Matthew and Jay - which, wow, okay, Jessi guessed they had to break off into a pair now - hung off towards the back, giggling over something by the coat rack.

 

“Okay shitheads, here’s the plan-” Jessi gathered them back up after struggling to for three minutes once she’d gotten the stickers for them to wear. She passed maps of the museum to the only other three functioning people in the group; Missy, Gina, and Matthew, each accepting it as if they hadn’t expected her to trust them with it. “-we’ll meet back up for lunch down in that tiny cafe down the hall in three hours. Directly at noon. Don’t be late.”

 

“Also, just as a general warning, I’d like to mention that getting any of your body parts stuck in a piece of art will automatically be an excuse for us to abandon you if that makes you late, so,” Matthew tacked on, shooting a pointed look in Nick’s direction. The last outing, for Andrew’s birthday, they’d go out to the Academy of Natural Sciences. It had taken the Philly Fire Department two hours to get his tiny little body out of one of the dinosaur skeletons he’d crawled up into.

 

“Okay, Gina, you’ll be with Nick,” Jessie continued after smiling thankfully in her best friend’s direction. The two in question high-fived. “Andrew with Missy, and I’ll be going with Jay and Matthew since there isn’t an equal amount of people in our group. You got that?” She surveyed the group with knowing eyes, and all looked back with varying levels of innocence in their eyes.

 

“Good,” She finished, snapping the map in her hand shut, as she’d been holding it open like it was a script for her to read. Immediately, all three groups split off in various directions, all heading for different exhibits. Jessi trailed after Jay and Matthew, not necessarily because she didn’t feel included, but for the weird, twisting, knowing feeling in her stomach.

 

By the time they’d reached the modern art section of the museum, about a quarter to eleven, Jessi knew something was off about the dynamic between her two accompanying friends. Shockingly, Jay hadn’t blown his top yet about something completely idiotic/gotten kicked out for getting too close to the paintings, which was an event that had occurred every other time they’d gone to some museum as a day trip. Instead, Matthew had been keeping him under a tight leash. Jessi had noticed several times. Even when he was deep in conversation with her about the piece they were looking at, his arm would come out to block Jay from coming any closer. Save for a laughing fit over a particularly vulgar painting over in the Renaissance area, there hadn’t been any outbursts. The trip felt weird, somehow, without them.

 

“Did you guys get in a fight?” She whispered to Matthew as they watched Jay prance excitedly back and forth between the two box television sets filled with screaming clowns. Matthew frowned in confusion.

 

“No. Why would you think that?” Matthew murmured in return, mouth barely moving. “If we’d gotten in a fight I wouldn’t have come.” They stood in silence for a few seconds, Jay now glued to the neon lights strung around the room.

 

“Matt, come here, they’re playing a movie!” Jay called from where he had hopped into the adjoining hallway, head stuck through a wall of curtains. Jessi turned to Matthew, who rolled his eyes in response but was unable to fight the wide, giddy smile on his face.

 

“Sorry, I have to continue babysitting,” He dismissed himself, and stalked off, shoulders nonchalant despite the extra pep in his step as he followed Jay through the curtains. Jessi narrowed her eyes at her friends, only then realizing Jay had called him ‘Matt’ and hadn’t gotten punched in the nose, which was Matthew’s usual response to any sort of nickname.

 

All met up for lunch in the tiny cafeteria at the back of the museum at twelve, which was shocking. Normally Andrew and Missy would be halfway across Philly by now, both gullible and easily convinced to do anything if offered jazz music. Still, Jessi watched the two bumble in, hands connected loosely between them, and that made her Mom Friend heart settle in her chest.

 

“Look at those brownies,” Gina whistled between her teeth as she and Jessi admired the deserts. “I’m on my period right now, so I’m like...craving chocolate.”

 

“Get it, girl,” Jessi grinned as her friend snickered before leaning over and taking the brownie for her own plate. “What soups do they have today?”

 

“Italian Wedding, some weird French one, and chicken noodle,” Nick announced, straightening an imaginary tie like a newscaster. Over by the frozen salads, Matthew wrinkled his upper lip.

 

“That _French one_ is called Bisque, Purse Dog, there’s a name tag directly in front of it,” He sighed, and Nick scowled, big mouth opening to say a retort. Jessi slipped in between before they could start bickering as they tended to do though, eager to test out her hypothesis.

 

“Do you think I should get the Bisque, Matt?” She asked with a pursed, calm expression, careful to pronounce Bisque correctly as to not give him something else to get upset over. Matthew’s hand stuttered from where it had been reaching to grab one of the sparkling waters on the top shelf, and, terrifyingly, his entire brain seemed to short-circuit. He twitched slightly.

 

“Do NOT call me Matt,” He gritted out after what seemed like years, hand clutching at the nearest water bottle angrily and slamming it face down onto his shaking lunch tray. “My name is Matthew.”

 

“Jay calls you Matt,” Jessi pushed, and she couldn’t help the cunning smile that came onto her face. Matthew’s face twisted up in a whole mix of emotions. Beside her, Gina came to stand, letting out a little giggle of surprise. He looked constipated.

 

“Well-he-ugh!” Matthew stormed in the direction of the check-out line in a huff, ears steaming. Jessi shared a glance with Gina and Nick, who were both watching her in shock.

 

“What the hell was that about?” Nick questioned as the trio began to follow in Matthew’s footsteps, slowly enough to give him space. Jessi was full-on smirking now, watching the back of her best friend’s neck go as red as Andrew’s hair.

 

“An experiment,” Jessi replied, Gina and Nick shooting one another a confused look behind her back.

 

By the time they made it back onto the bus, it was nearly nine. The museum had closed down hours before, but then Andrew had gotten the bright idea to go off and get dinner somewhere in the city, maybe even check out a few sights. Then Missy had disappeared after seeing an advertisement for a Firefly Viewing Party the next week, and Nick and Gina had gotten themselves, somehow, into Swann Memorial Fountain. Surprisingly, the only relatively well-behaved duo had been Matthew and Jay, only running off together when Jay had spent the last of his money paying for an hour on one of those electric rental bikes.

 

But exhausted out of her mind and desperate to go home to her nice, warm bed, Jessi found herself unable to even slightly doze off on the nearly empty bus home. Most workers had taken the early buses or the train, so it was really just them and a few older people towards the front, as well as college-aged kids goofing off in the far, far back. Still, she was unable to sleep. After all, who would remind the others which stop to get off on if she was too busy snoring? If she fell asleep, they could very well all wake up the next day halfway to Florida, which...yuck. Florida.

 

Nick had passed out halfway through Missy’s engaging retelling of the Chernobyl Explosion, drool now covering Andrew’s sweatshirted arm. Gina and Missy had taken the seats next to Jessi in a three-seater, as the girls had not spent nearly enough time together during the day. Unfortunately, Missy’s massive amounts of sugar intake during the day had finally caught up with her, and she was the next to completely conk out, mouth wide open and head tilted back. Gina had offered her second earbud to Jessi, but then she’d put on that weird, screamo grunge shit she loved, and Jessi had opted out. No thank you, she’d like to keep her hearing. Distantly, she could hear the shrieks of the electric guitar through Gina’s earbuds, as Gina had also fallen asleep quickly. How she could, Jessi would never be able to guess. Shockingly, Andrew was the last of the four to nap, having promised himself he’d be able to stay up later than Jessi. Now also resting his head atop of Nick’s, a sort of pile-up within their seats, Jessi was somewhat proud to say she’d won.

 

Halfway through the bus ride back to South Jersey, thirty minutes or so to their town, she looked over towards the other aisle to check up on Matthew and Jay. On a normal trip, Jay would have fought to sit next to anyone else, and he’d been asleep within the first two minutes of riding. When asked, he always said that driving made him sleepy. Which was worrying, to say the least. But he was fifteen, so they still had another year before he’d be able to drive under adult supervision.

 

On this ride, though, he and Matthew were huddled close together, as if searching for warmth despite it being relatively hot. They were talking quietly, too quietly for Jessi to hear, eyes only for each other. Jay looked like a puppy when talking to Matthew, face open and affectionate, entire body practically draped across the other boy. Despite his constant affirmation of hating physical touch, Matthew didn’t seem to mind all that much. In fact, his own arm was around Jay’s shoulders, an open invitation the other boy took all too gladly. She slipped a hand down towards Gina’s earbuds and pressed on the button to pause the music. The bus fell almost silent, besides the occasional high laughter of the college students.

 

“-Haring did a lot for the minorities who were usually pushed aside in politics with his art,” Jessi strained to listen in on their conversation and stopped short in confusion. Matthew was explaining...Keith Haring to Jay? “He didn’t do it for the fame, he did it for the people. For the greater good.”

 

“I just like his art cause of all the funky little dancing people on it,” Jay admitted after a moment of contemplation, and (this shaking Jessi to her core) Matthew chuckled softly at his reply.

 

“Funky,” Matthew repeated, and Jay playfully scowled at him.

 

“Fuck off,” Jay whispered, tilting his head upwards and puffing out his chest in a very peacock-like fashion. Matthew was laughing still, a quiet, boyish giggle Jessi had never heard him make. He leaned up onto Jay’s open shoulder, their bodies an awkward tangled mess, both grinning stupidly at one another. Jessi watched as Matthew’s head ducked against Jay’s cheek, mouth disappearing for a moment, Jay’s cheeks turning pink instantaneously. Her eyes widened at the action, watching the two settle in against one another. Oh. Oh. Oh. _Oh._

 

Holy shit.

 

**2: ANDREW (BEAM ME UP)**

Though Matthew had always acted like he were gum on his shoe instead of a true human being, Andrew suspected the boy actually enjoyed his company. At the start of Freshman Biology class, about a month before he figured it out, they’d been allowed to chose lab partners. Without a word, Matthew had gone and sat down on the crappy stool beside Andrew, despite Devin having also been in the Honors class with the two of them.

 

He also knew that Matthew was incredibly intelligent, though he didn’t want to admit it. Evidence from a few at-first-uncomfortable-and-then-really-fun afternoons spent studying/playing video games in Matthew’s basement proved that he was both an academic and a huge fucking nerd. Which, wow. Andrew had not expected that from him. _“The LEGO Star Wars Saga Wii Game is my little brother’s...”_ Had been the excuse the first time. Around the tenth time Andrew had come over after walking home from school with their group together, Matthew had just stopped with the lying altogether, which seemed to be a good step in their friendship. Still, Matthew’s attempts at opening up to Andrew about his secret nerdism did not mean all of the cards were out on the table. At least, not until Halloween of their freshman year.

 

“Let’s go with a group costume!” Gina suggested excitedly over lunch about two weeks before Halloween, too overjoyed about the idea to even begin to poke at the disgusting spaghetti that was being served. Luckily, Andrew’s mother had packed him lunch.

 

“What’s a group costume with seven characters?” Jessi hummed, deep in thought as she tore into her own jelly sandwich.

 

“We could be the Gods of Ancient Greek mythology!” Missy suggested with a finger wave, glancing over at Andrew (her boyfriend, he was still giddy to announce) for reassurance. “Although there are twelve of them, some of them are less important the others…”

 

“Actually, I already have a costume for Halloween,” Jay announced from the other end of the table, stabbing his fork absentmindedly into what seemed like wiggling pieces of chicken.

 

“You? A costume? Last year all you went as was yourself with a piece of paper on your shirt that read ‘I’m Jay Bilzerian, the famous forty-year-old magician who owns a red Tusla,” Nick furrowed his eyebrows. Jay’s eyes went all shifty, as they did when he was nervous, and he stabbed at the meat harder than before.

 

“Yeah, well, I can dress however I wanna dress!” He snapped in return, Jessi holding up her hands placatingly.

 

“We’re not trying to start a fight, Jay, we’re just wondering why you of all people would have a costume so early in the game already,” She promised him, speaking in a calm tone. Still, it did nothing. Something about the conversation had set him off.

 

“Me of all people? Fuck you, Jessi! I’m allowed to wear a costume, and it’s not gay! Costumes are like magic, they transcend sexuality!” He choked out furiously, standing up so fast some of his food fell off his tray and onto the table. Gina, who was the closest one to him, scuttled away from the meat pieces immediately. “I’m going to find Matthew, and not definitely cry in the upstairs boy’s bathroom…! Stop looking at me like that!” He raced off, leaving the table in a shocked state.

 

“I dunno why I expected him to do anything else,” Jessi sighed into her hand as the friend group sat in stunned silence, watching him trip twice over his untied shoes.

 

“Actually, he’d seemed fine before that outburst. What set him off?” Missy winced in sympathy as Jay finally face-planted halfway out of the entrance to the cafeteria, very clearly muttering curse words to himself.

 

“I wasn’t talking about the outburst,” Jessi muttered, but Andrew was sure she hadn’t meant for him to hear, so he didn’t say anything in reply.

 

“We’re thinking about doing a group costume for Halloween. Gina had suggested Scooby Doo,” Andrew announced to Matthew over the phone that night. The silence on the other line was slightly alarming, especially with the familiar sound of his parents screaming in the background.

 

 _“Sorry, Andrew, I’ve already got a costume planned out,”_ To his credit, Matthew actually sounded apologetic. _“Besides, aren’t there only five main characters in Scooby Doo?”_

 

“Well, one of us has to be the bad guy,” Andrew reasoned, then felt bad almost immediately. Matthew had complained to him enough times about how tired he was with gay characters in television either being put into feminine stereotypes or evil roles. “Not that you’d play the bad guy, obviously, but-”

 

 _“It’s okay, I get it,”_ Matthew gave him a chuckle, if only to stop Andrew from blowing it out of proportion. _“And, as I said, I’ve already got a costume. So, yeah. You guys should do Scooby Doo, though! If you seriously need someone to be the bad guy, you should just borrow Featuring Ludacris from Jay.”_

 

“Jay’s already got a costume, too,” Andrew told him, and then furrowed his eyebrows, rehearing Matthew’s previous sentence. If he suggested Featuring Ludacris, how had he already known there’d only be five people left in their group?

 

 _“I know,”_  The other boy agreed distantly, and the screaming increased. _“Listen, I gotta go. But I’ll see you tomorrow, right?”_

 

“Matthew-”

 

 _“Byyyyeeee,”_ The dial tone returned, and Andrew flopped his phone back onto his bed with a drooping feeling in his gut. Something was up. And he was going to figure out what.

 

As it turns out, he was unable to figure out ‘what’ up until Halloween night actually arrived. Since they were cool Freshmen now, no one in their grade wore their costumes to school besides for a few kids in the jazz band who had dressed up like instruments. Their own group had decided to go trick-or-treating together, because even if almost all were gangly messes of puberty, they still wanted the chance to escape their parents and gorge on candy.

 

Andrew arrived at Nick’s house right on time, as it was the headquarters for the operation. He was dressed as an even-more awkward Shaggy, which was difficult to do. He knocked on the door at least four times before Nick even appeared in the distance, popping up from his living room and swinging his front door open.

 

“Nice Shaggy, dude, I like the hairdo,” Nick greeted with a wide grin, reaching out a grubby hand to shake up Andrew’s poofed up red hair. His best friend hit his hand away in mild annoyance but grabbed with his own at Nick’s dyed blonde hair. He’d gotten the longest straw, so he was Fred. Despite his tiny stature, and absolutely zero relation to the character. In actuality, he’d been the only person okay with having his girlfriend be Scooby. (They’d gone without the necessity of a villain, since Jay would have been the only person to want to play that part).  

 

Over the course of the next hour or so, the rest of the gang began to show. First, it was Missy, pillowcase decorated like the Mystery Bus, her orange sweater getting lint all over it the moment she plopped down on the couch beside Andrew. Then it was Gina, arms full of candy as though she’d already gone out trick-or-treating. Nick spent the next twenty minutes both half-laughing and half-complimenting his girlfriend, who had a collar around her neck and dog ears. Andrew found them making out in the kitchen after Gina had disappeared to put her coat in the hallway closet, which made him question Nick’s level of sexual attraction to certain things. The last of the official costume to come was Jessi, who came in tugging uncomfortably at the edge of her purple skirt. Instantly upon entering in her Daphne costume, she took Gina’s hand and rushed upstairs with her. Missy followed them after a moment.

 

The doorbell rang around the time Andrew had started to retie his shoes. The girls had disappeared fifteen minutes before, but it didn’t matter all that much. Waiting this long let the little kids get off the streets so that the big kids could come out. He waved Nick off when he made to reach up and get it himself, strolling over to the door and swinging it open.

 

On the porch stood Matthew and Jay, dressed in full-on Spock and Captain Kirk cosplay. Jay had his normally spiked-up hair slicked back to reveal the surprisingly well-crafted pointy ears, his blue shirt glinting underneath the lighting of the porch. Matthew was matching him, only his was yellow, to coordinate with the most recognizable Star Trek uniforms. Jay raised the Vulcan salute near perfectly at Andrew’s mouth-gaping expression.

 

“Told you I already had a costume backed up,” Matthew shrugged, but there was a defensive air in his stance. Jay nudged their arms together. “Can we come in, or are you supposed to just stand in the doorway?”

 

“Oh, yeah - sure - uh,” Andrew sidestepped, Matthew nodding his head. He and Jay seemed to hesitant for a moment, as if having a conversation telepathically. Then Jay was stepping in first, and, after a few seconds, Matthew followed. Andrew shut the door behind them.

 

“You’re going to catch flies,” Matthew whispered with a cheeky, if not slightly nervous grin, and turned to look back at Jay.

 

“Hey, guys - holy shit!” Nick whooted from the couch, hopping up to examine his two friends. “Sick costumes, guys.” He fist-pumped Matthew, whose face flooded with both confusion and poorly hidden joy at the move. Nick hesitated on Jay.

 

“There’s something different about you, Jay,” Nick mused, leaning in close.

 

“I slicked my fucking hair back, dude, could you seriously not tell? We’ve been friends for years!” Jay pouted, and Nick slapped his arm, rolling his eyes.

 

“No, dumbass, I can see the hair,” He replied. “It’s something else.” Just then, there was a clattering of three pairs of shoes on the stairs. The girls emerged, Gina and Jessi having switched costumes.

 

“Why’d you guys switch-?”

 

“I’m a furry,” Jessi deadpanned and waved around her big paw mitts, ones Gina had previously refused to wear.

 

“She wanted me to be Daphne instead. Which is great, because we’re all now more comfortable in our costumes,” She shot an uncomfortable glance at the dog ears on Jessi’s head. Andrew searched all three for signs of lying and found none. Jessi had looked nervous in that costume, but wearing the dog costume, she had no qualms. With that issue taken care of, the only problem to look at was the Star Trek costumes.

 

“Oh my God, you guys are Space Husbands!” Missy cheered, practically shaking out of her skin. She raced in front of the television to reach Matthew and Jay, inspecting their uniforms with the eyes of a superfan. “Who designed these costumes? They’re amazing!”

 

“We found them in the five dollar bin at Spirit Halloween,” Matthew replied, squirming away at her attempts to peel at his shirt.

 

“Matt made them!” Jay corrected the boy beside him, happily letting Missy poke him in the sides. The room fell silent. The late-night host on the television even seemed to be listening in.

 

“That’s really...I didn’t know that you sew, Matthew,” Gina gushed honestly, picking up her own pillowcase to get ready to trick-or-treat. “It’s a really nice job.”

 

“Whatever,” Matthew rolled his eyes, but a soft, happy smile was coming onto his face, one Andrew had only seen when they watched _The Outsiders_ together.

 

“You must have studied the show for hours,” Missy breathed out, braces shining in the lighting of the living room as she examined Jay’s pointy Spock ears.

 

“Oh yeah, Matt loves Star Trek. He made me watch the whole fucking thing,” Jay let out a loud laugh when Missy tugged at his collar, not noticing Matthew’s face slowly filling up with color. “Which was fine. Captain Kirk’s fine as hell.” All red. Bright, bright red.

 

“Holy fucking shit, now I know why you look different! Your unibrow’s gone!” Nick pointed to Jay’s eyebrows as proof, practically screaming. Andrew suspected he’d done it mostly to take attention off of Matthew, who was melting into the floor from embarrassment. But the statement was true - the unibrow was gone, leaving two normal, separated eyebrows. “I don’t think I have _ever_ seen you without the unibrow.”

 

“It was time for a change,” Jay explained with a lazy arm wave, his other disappearing to wrap around Matthew’s waist. It was quickly dismissed, Matthew slapping it harshly away. “After I tossed out all my pillows and got new ones at the Target down Main Street, I thought maybe a new look would be good for me, okay? What’s so wrong about that?”

 

“No, it’s cool! You look great without the unibrow,” Gina nodded, eyes squinting to see the difference. “Way less pervy. I mean, the look’s ruined the second you open your mouth, but…”

 

“Hey, fuck you!” Jay shouted. Jessi’s painted-on dog nose twitched, and Andrew suddenly realized how desperate he was for candy/this conversation to end.

 

“Okay, tonight so far has been full of unwanted surprises,” Jessi pushed past Gina and Nick, who had been gathering by the couch. “Can we go already? Shockingly, my mom gave me a curfew tonight, and I really don’t feel like getting into a fight.” The gang trailed after her through the door dutifully, Jay joining in excitedly.

 

“I’m not a nerd,” Matthew hissed individually to everyone who passed, shooting Jay a glare behind his back that would, in an alternate universe, burn his skin off. Andrew was left waiting for him to get a move on out the door. After all, they only had a few hours of sunlight left. Matthew turned to him and pursed his lips defiantly. “I’m not a nerd.” Andrew shut the door behind them as they left, and walked up the pathway to catch up with their friends.

 

“Whatever you say, James T. Kirk,” Andrew replied.

 

They got back to the house around eleven. Jessi waved goodbye from where she was biking off back to her house, but not before announcing-all too proudly- that her curfew had been ten o’clock. Gina was now the one tugging awkwardly at the end of her Daphne costume, due to how incredibly short the skirt was. They’d passed the Devins whilst out, and it had been a difficulty holding Gina back from slugging Devin in the face after a particularly hurtful insult towards her outfit.

 

Andrew felt his eyes getting droopier by the second - he’d never been one to stay up. He was the elected leader after Jessi left, so Nick made him unlock his front door since his parents had long gone to sleep. They all flopped onto separate places in the living room, spreading out their candy for trading, the finale of the evening. Andrew had gotten plenty of Three Musketeers, which was his own goal for that night. Missy was warm against his side, falling asleep as they watched one of the many _Jessie_ Halloween specials Nick had found On Demand.

 

“Anyone wanna trade this opened lollipop for...anything?” Gina’s voice was muffled from where she was buried in a pile of blankets, still recovering from the absolute chill that was October in South Jersey. She presented the lime-purple thing, and Missy stuck her tongue out in reply. On the television, the laugh track played. Andrew smiled dopily.

 

Nick and Gina had taken up the main couch, leaving the floor for Missy and Andrew. The side couch was usually their kingdom, but Matthew and Jay were covering up any and all space on that. Andrew wrapped his arm around Missy’s shoulders so that her neck wouldn’t get a cramp, and surveyed the room, contemplating the shit he would get if he called and woke up his dad to come and pick him up.

 

On the side couch, Matthew had Jay’s head in his lap, hair freed from the gel by the sheer force of Matthew’s roaming hands. Their costumes were ruffled, Jay’s having a suspicious chocolatey stain on the right arm. His eyes were completely shut off from the rest of the world, like he was in another realm entirely. Matthew was watching Jay’s face, the soft smile from before returning with a force Andrew had never witnessed before. Because, holy fuck, Matthew was grinning. In a nice way, an affectionate way. A _lovesick_ way.

 

“Hey, Matthew?” Andrew called from the other side of the room, careful to be quiet as to not wake up his girlfriend. His friend nodded to show he’d heard, but he didn’t look up from combing through Jay’s hair with his fingers. “Did you shave Jay’s unibrow?” Finally, Matthew looked at him, although his eyes were slightly unfocused. He was also in the other realm, apparently.

 

“He asked me to,” Matthew responded dreamily, and Andrew watched in overwhelming horror as one of his fingers came down to rub against Jay’s new two eyebrows. “So yeah, I did. What about it?” God, he was so tired and high over the amount of candy the entire gang had ingested Matthew probably wouldn’t remember this conversation, but Andrew would forever have it and that fucking move Matthew had just done forever bleached into his mind. Matthew and Jay were together. Like, together together. And that brought on way too many questions for Andrew to deal with. He dug into the nearest Three Musketeers, focusing on the next _Jessie_ episode, and began to fully prepare to pester Matthew with many, _many_ questions at their next Star Wars binge.

 

**3: MISSY (PINA COLADAS)**

Missy knew relationships. Sure, she’d only been in one, two counting her recurring fantasies about being in a space opera with Nathan Fillion, but she’d sure written a lot about relationships. Fanfiction was her escape from the hell dimension that was life, and although Andrew often questioned her tendency to fixate on various things, she wouldn’t be spewing out all her feelings for the newest obsession just yet. At least, hopefully. Sometimes she said things without meaning to. Especially when there was sugar intake involved.

 

There’d always been something about Matthew and Jay’s relationship. She remembered in seventh grade when they’d kissed during Smooth or Share, and then distantly, after masturbating in front of her entire graduating class, them making out by the bleachers. Other than that, they’d never been anything more than close friends.

 

She’d never been particularly close to either of them before high school. After discovering Matthew was just as big as a Stark Trek fanatic as her (maybe even bigger, but _shush)_ she’d forced him to watch through all of Battlestar Galactica. And then they became great friends.

 

Jay was a harder egg to crack, due to his naturally contrasting presence against Missy’s. But, in actuality, he was a very sensitive and kind person when he allowed himself to be. After spending hours tutoring him in various classes, they also came to be close friends. Which is how Missy justified her spying on the two of them.

 

There was a roller skating rink buried with the forest on the edge of town and Gina had gotten it in her head that she wanted to learn how to skate on inlines. Despite having only skated maybe thrice on those clunky four-wheeled ones. Whatever, Missy wasn’t one to judge. So, after they’d organized themselves as well as they could, the friend group agreed to meet up for open skating on Friday.

 

Missy had arrived ten minutes before the skating rink opened, which was chilly, to say the least. Luckily, Andrew had also come as early as her. They played Tic-Tac-Toe in the dirt and huddled for warmth before the doors officially opened. Tickets were ten bucks without skates, which was basically highway robbery, but it wasn’t like there was any other skating rink and she really didn’t want to disappoint Gina/crush her dreams of learning how to skate.

 

“This place reeks of thirty-year-old unemployment and depression,” Matthew sniffed when he somehow magically teleported to be standing right behind Missy at the RENT-A-SKATE counter towards the back. She jumped, before moving to pretend she hadn’t.

 

“I like it. I like the feel. Very eighties,” Missy replied, holding out her white sweater to present it to him. “Look, the neon lights are making my sweater glow!” Matthew smiled tightly and then continued to survey the room, shaking his head in pity.

 

“I feel bad for the soul of this skating rink. Not the actual owner, you know, but the heart of this building. God, what is that smell?”

 

“Hey, Matt,” Jay greeted with his familiar skeezy smile, somehow already wearing skates- ones that were absolutely caked in dirt.

 

“Size four, female,” Missy told the near-dead worker, passing over her light-up sneakers, before turning back to Jay. “Why are yours so dirty?”

 

“Because I brought them from home,” He grinned proudly. Matthew wrinkled his nose in disgust as he also retrieved his own. Missy took in the differences. While Jay’s looked as though he’d personally dug them out of the ground, Matthew’s were polished and smelled amazing. She suspected he skated regularly, despite his contempt for the rink.

 

“What did you do, rub them in dog shit?” Matthew slid on his skates quickly, without even having to sit down. Jay frowned, a hunch taking over his shoulders as he put his own on.

 

“Thank you,” Missy told the attendant, who just humphed and lit a cigarette right beside the ‘NO SMOKING’ sign. She took over the used skates, thankful she’d worn two pairs of socks.

 

“Look, you know I didn’t mean it,” Missy overheard Matthew whispering in a hushed tone to Jay, doing a spin in place. “Come outside with me, we’ll clean those off.” He held out a hand in invitation. After a moment of watching Matthew anxiously wiggle his fingers in place, Jay glanced around them, seemingly having forgotten about Missy’s presence. To be fair, she was crouched in the darkness, tying up her skates. Jay took his hand, and they skated off towards the back door together, both already proven to be, somehow, incredible at skating.

 

“Missy! Nice skates,” Andrew cheered, and he held out his own hand to get her off the ground. She took her boyfriend’s hand thankfully. It was wet from where he’d washed his hands in the bathroom.

 

“Hey, Andrew, did you see that?” She jerked a thumb towards the back door, where Matthew and Jay had disappeared. Upon leading his eyes towards the door, his face went completely flush.

 

“Size ten, males,” Andrew asked the attendant, who stomped out his cigarette in the carpeted cover of the counter. He passed over his Converse. “See what? I didn’t see anything!”

 

“Okay,” Missy agreed easily, although his quick response had her BIG FAT LIAR alarm blaring. Luckily enough for Andrew, the rest of their friends arrived then, the trio in a pack since Nick’s dad had driven all over to the rink. “Wanna hold my hand while we skate?”

 

Andrew took his skates from the attendant, and smiled at his girlfriend, taking a seat at the round seating area to slide on his roller skates.

 

“I would like nothing more,” He replied.

 

They started to skate as soon as _Mia Khalifa_ came on, a song that was lost on the five other fully grown adults skating along with them. Missy, having not skated in years, decided to go with in-lines and was pretty okay. Andrew continued to crash and burn, so they stayed towards the outer layer. With one hand he squeezed the life out of Missy’s, the other gripping tightly to the wall. After about a five-minute wait, Matthew and Jay returned from outside, looking pinker than they had before. But Jay’s skates were mysteriously clean, so the poop stench was gone. Both boys skated like they’d been doing so their entire lives, sticking close to the center so that they could each perform tricks in an immature attempt to outdo one another. Gina, as predicted, was an awful skater. She also gripped the wall, although even that couldn’t help her sometimes. Nick was alright, mostly because he used the four-wheeled skates. Almost all the times he fell were second-hand from Gina. Jessi was like a cat to a bath. She started out with in-lines, and then had a panic attack on the rink and had to change to the four-wheeled skates. Despite her out of breath appearance, she promised her friends she was fine. And, if she fainted, it wasn’t like she’d be blocking anyone’s way. Well, besides Matthew and Jay.

 

“I’m tired,” Matthew announced to anyone who would listen (meaning Jay and Missy) about an hour in. “Wanna play Skee-Ball?”

 

“Holy shit, seriously? I thought you hated arcade games!” Jay yelped in excitement, practically dripping over skated feet. Matthew shrugged in an attempt to be nonchalant.

 

“I do,” He replied, and Missy watched, seemingly the person even paying the least bit attention, as they shared a smile straight out of a love story. The two skated to the edge of the rink, disappearing into the arcade section of the roller rink. Their laughter filtered through the bass boosted version of _Bohemian Rhapsody._

 

After about another thirty minutes of skating, Missy left Andrew resting on one of the gross plastic benches and ventured through the maze of arcade games herself. Blinking lights followed her unsteady feet, as though she were a small deer instead of a person. Noises came from around the corner, and she ducked her head to peer without revealing herself.

 

Matthew was watching Jay play some variation of a shooting game, matching grins on both faces. Gunshots rang through the roller rink, so loud Missy thought her ears were going to bleed. Neither boy noticed the volume, Jay too focused on the game, Matthew too focused on Jay.

 

“Missy!” A voice called from the edge of the hallway, and she snapped out of it. Seemingly, so did Matthew. He stepped back from where he had been resting a hand on Jay’s shoulder, peering towards the game where Missy had been hiding. Gina, who had called her name, was messily attempting to skate in her direction. Silently, Missy let out a scream. She’d been so, so close to figuring them out. “Come on, I wanna take photos in the photo booth with you and Jessi!”

 

“I didn’t notice you were there, Missy,” Matthew spoke up from where he had strolled to where Missy was standing, shooting Gina a smile. His face was calm, but his eyes were screaming. They locked eye contact.

 

“I was just wandering around. We got off the rink about thirty seconds ago,” Missy explained with an easy wave of her arm, which she then held out so that Gina had something to grip onto. _Don’t worry about it, Matthew. Don’t worry about it, especially not around me._ He didn’t seem to get the message, if only his eyes grew more clouded over.

 

“Catch you back out there in a few minutes,” Matthew dismissed the struggling girls, returning to his standard place beside Jay. The game had stopped, needing more tokens, and Jay was turned with a concerned expression on his face. All Missy caught was a glimpse of their stare, before Gina was toppling over her and dragging her along the photo booth towards the front of the roller rink.

 

It took another few hours before the group decided to ditch the roller-blading. They eventually did get food, chugging down multiple bottles of water and soda from a vending machine one of the workers had to unlock each individual time, since every time the bottle would get stuck. Jay and Matthew shared a plate of nachos, and when Jessi pointed it out, Matthew had given the excuse of food being too expensive. Which, yeah, Missy totally agreed with. But also, it was a very blatant lie. Matthew had never been too good at covering up his feelings.

 

They’d just decided that skating was no longer an option, as the rink was going to close down after another five minutes or so, when a drumbeat started up that had Jay grinning widely.

 

“Holy fuck, Matt, it’s our song!” He crooned, standing up on trained legs. _“I was tired of my lady, we’d been together too long.”_

 

“You guys have a song?” Jessi cackled, and all eyes landed on Matthew, who was seething.

 

“We do not,” He gritted through his teeth, though his eyes still trailed after Jay, who was now fully dancing beside the table.

 

 _“If you’re not into yoga, if you have half a brain,”_ Jay shimmed his shoulders, grinning at his friend. _“If you like making love at midnight!-”_

 

“I didn’t know you liked Rupert Holmes, Matthew,” Nick snickered through a hand. Matthew glowered at the entirety of the table, and then all turned to Jay, who seemed to have noticed Matthew’s falling mood. Matthew and Jay shared a conversation filled with varying gazes, before Matthew was standing up defiantly.

 

“Actually, Nick, I _love_ Rupert Holmes,” Matthew sneered, and skated out beside Jay, puffing out his chest in a way to cover up his insecurity. He was going another route than Missy had guessed he would. Good for him! “So you can suck my dick.”

 

 _“I didn’t think about my lady,”_ The song continued to ring over the speakers. Matthew met eyes with Missy over the top of a very confused Andrew’s head. She felt herself nodding just slightly. Within seconds, the two boys were out, Jay screaming the lyrics, Matthew more softly singing along as they skated with one another expertly on the otherwise empty rink. The friend group watched them keenly from the tables as the song began to fade out. Missy smiled at her two friends and snatched a nacho from their abandoned seats. As long as they were happy.

 

**4: GINA (REAL, REAL SLOW)**

Compared to the rest of the six, she was relatively new. After the fiasco that was Her Boobs in seventh grade, she’d strayed from them until, finally, getting back together with Nick For Real This Time and sitting at their lunch table. Now in the winter of her freshman year, she was almost a hundred percent sure she’d been set in stone as a part of the gang. But the fact Matthew and Jay had never told her about their relationship threw her off a little.

 

She’d only begun to suspect they were a thing when the group went to see _Into The Spider-Verse_ together/grab dinner at the T.G.I. Friday’s across the parking lot from the theater. After finishing up near tears from watching the final battle scene and sharing a plate of fries with Nick, Gina noticed Matthew and Jay sitting closer together than the rest of the group. She was distracted, admittedly, by Andrew ‘going to the bathroom’ (storming off after Jessi had compared him to Spider-Ham one too many times) and the rapturous laughter from her friends that followed, but she hadn’t missed the fact that Jay had only had to plead with Matthew for a minute before he agreed to share a chocolate milkshake.

 

The real problem came to a head during the Snowball Dance, aka the Prom for freshmen. It was late December, nearing winter break, when Gina entered the high school cafeteria to see the shitty decorations everywhere. A streamer had fallen into Missy’s plate of vegetarian chili when she’d sat down. Her friends hadn’t been too on edge, despite the buzzing aura in the room about who would ask who. Nick asked her to be his date over Facetime that night, and, not one for extravagance, Gina agreed excitedly.

 

It took some minor convincing on Andrew’s part, due to his apparent bad luck with public dancing events, but Missy agreed to go as his date three days later once he shakily asked her as they were walking home. Tickets were being sold in the North Cafeteria, where the seniors sat, so the group ventured in a tight pack as to not get eaten alive by the bigger kids. Correction: the two public couples went. Jessi had decided to protest by not going, and Jay mysteriously already had his ticket. Gina hadn’t asked Matthew, and he hadn’t followed them like he usually did whenever he wanted to be included, so she hadn’t thought anything over it. Until the night of the dance.

 

“Is it too sparkly?” Missy asked her for what must have been the hundredth time, twirling around to see the skirt of her dress flip upwards like a tutu, before shivering at the chill that came onto her bare legs. Gina had decided to wear a jumpsuit, if only to make herself look taller in comparison to her boyfriend.

 

“It looks great, don’t worry,” She waved the smaller girl off, who was practically bouncing off the sidewalk of Nick and Andrew’s street due to the three separate Cokes she’d chugged down back at Gina’s house. They managed to get to the porch without Gina ripping out Missy’s curls from sheer frustration at the girl’s constant blabbering, although she did start banging on the door desperately. Nick’s mother swung it open, a wide smile on her face.

 

“Gina, Missy! You two look so beautiful!” She gushed, balling up her hands together and stepping back to let them into the warmth of the house. Gina felt herself melt slightly under the heat. It had been...so cold… “Andrew and Nicky are just upstairs getting ready. You’ll have to let me take some pictures!”

 

“It’s too bad Jessi didn’t want to come with us,” Missy sighed as they watched Nick’s mother disappear into the kitchen, searching for her camera. Gina snorted and pulled up Instagram in a few taps. She showed Jessi’s most recent picture, a selfie of her in full battle makeup and a sign in her hand.

 

“She’s at a _March For Our Lives_ rally down in New York City. I think this might be one of the best nights of her life,” Gina and Missy both admired the picture for a few moments, each silently wishing they’d gone with her, until footsteps creaking above made them look towards the stairs.

 

“Wow! Gina, you look great!” Nick cheered, a wide grin on his face as he presented himself, thankfully wearing dress pants and an actual tux - not one of those shirts with the printed-on tie - and rushed to his girlfriend’s side. Andrew and Missy started to stutter out compliments to one another, also regrouping. “Like my outfit?”

 

“I’m just happy it’s not sweatpants,” Gina admitted aloud, a smile on her face.

 

“Everybody say cheese!” Nick’s mother appeared then, bulky old camera in hand. Andrew and Missy shifted over awkwardly so that they could fit into the photo with Gina and Nick. “One, two three-”

 

“Cheese!” All four yelled behind clenched teeth. Gina let Nick put his jacket around her shoulders, but only because it was cold outside and _not_ because she liked the feeling of it on.

 

They made it to the dance about ten minutes late, just enough for it to be fashionable and not questionable. Missy made a beeline for the snack table upon entering, since her mother was chaperoning. Being a good dance partner, Andrew followed. There was some strange remixed pop song playing over the loudspeakers of the gym, so bass-boosted Gina could feel her ears beginning to bleed.

 

“Wanna dance?” Nick had to yell so that she could hear him over the music, and she shook her head. No one else was dancing, since the gym was packed with awkward teenagers too awkward to go out onto the dance floor and bop awkwardly. Besides, who wanted to dance to a song that was this nuts?

 

“Let’s wait until they play the Cupid Shuffle,” She countered, and Nick nodded in agreement, taking her hand to lead her to the photo booth. They then, after discovering the line was way too long to be allowed, sat by the poorly decorated lunch tables and made fun of the people walking in later than them.

 

Matthew’s familiar quiff of light brown hair appeared over the crowd around 7:32, thirty-two minutes after when the dance started. As the crowd shifted, Gina raised her hand to wave him over. His eyes lit up with recognition. That’s when she noticed one of his arms was hidden within the crowd around him. He pulled away, and Jay surfaced behind him, both grinning wide, excited smiles. The duo trudged towards the table.

 

“This is awesome! The music’s fucking lit,” Jay cheered, and of course he would enjoy the eardrum bleeding music that was whatever Coach Steve from the middle school was DJ-ing up towards the front of the gym.

 

“You’re only saying that because Coach Steve’s your best friend,” Matthew joked, and wrinkled his nose almost...playfully? Jay scoffed, and they took the seats beside Gina, since Nick was on the other side, scarfing down a slice of cake.

 

“You know who my best friend is, dumbass,” Jay crowed and then twisted so that he was fully staring at Gina, as though that would distract her from noticing Matthew’s quick blush he ducked to hide underneath the dim lighting of the gym. “Sup, Gina! Hot outfit!”

 

“You too, Jay. I’m liking the button-up,” She gestured to his whole ensemble. It was true! Instead of his usual disgusting, sweat-stained shirt, he’d opted for a nice white button-up and khakis, a bowtie decorated in tiny magician wands wiggling loosely whenever he moved.

 

“Matt helped me out,” He jerked a thumb back to the boy beside him, who shrugged off the compliment as he usually did.

 

“I paid for everything, he means,” Matthew replied haughtily. Just then, the recognizable first notes of _Cupid Shuffle_ came on. The students went rushing out to the dance floor, because it was only this song and the Cha-Cha Slide they’d actually dance to. “Come on, let’s go!” He gestured for the three to accompany him. Gina shoved at Nick’s side lightly to get him out of the cake-induced trance. Down on the dance floor, they met up with Missy and Andrew, who had disappeared into the line of the photo booth fifteen minutes before. Andrew looked weirdly pale, both shaken as though the photo booth had done some personal offense to them.

 

The group of six jammed out to the Cupid Shuffle, and then as it faded out into Juju On That Beat, Jay started to do some sort of wild dance that seemed to convince the rest of the Freshmen to keep dancing. The floor was packed in a matter of seconds. There was a dance circle towards the center, originated by Jay and currently holding in a breakdancing Lola, who was shocking very good.

 

“You having fun?” Nick screamed over the wild music, popping-and-locking to whatever song was on. Gina laughed, and planted a fat kiss on the side of his cheek, searching out for Missy so she could convince her to do the worm in the dance circle. Her eyes landed on where Jay was stood, close to the DJ booth, whipping his spiked-up hair back and forth. Matthew, who was beside him as he always was, had a drink in his hands that purposefully prevented him from dancing, but Gina could tell he was tapping his foot. She smiled and ducked back into the crowd. Missy was always one to easily disappear.

 

The only slow song they played that night was _Shape of You,_ which had Devin complaining about loudly before she went off with her boyfriend Devon to dance towards the center, Freshmen flocking towards them like ducklings. Without asking, Nick had wrapped his arms around her waist, and despite his growth spurt over the summer his head still only reached her shoulders. Missy and Andrew were dancing maybe a foot apart, as if worried about getting in trouble with the half-dead teachers watching over the crowd of dancing Freshmen.

 

“This song is so 2017,” Gina heard Matthew’s snark in her ear as he passed behind her. She took her eyes off the soft tuffs of Nick’s hair, which was sticking up everywhere in the static of the room, and locked her gaze on Matthew and Jay, who were going towards the back of the dance floor.

 

“What are they doing?” Missy whispered in her direction, but there was a sense of awe in her voice. The two girls watched, their boyfriends completely hopeless. Jay was tugging at Matthew’s arm, the two having a heated discussion over _something._ Then, Matthew’s shoulders fell back, and he was letting Jay rest his hands tentatively on his waist.

 

“They’re slow-dancing together,” Gina murmured in awe, she and Missy grinning happily for their friends. Matthew, after a moment of grumbling, threw his arms around Jay’s shoulders and allowed the other to completely invest himself into the music, which he did. They were swaying along against the beat, both with much more rhythm than Gina had expected two teenage boys to contain.

 

She turned to glance at Devon and Devin, the only other truly slow-dancing couple. The crowd around them was hesitating, having recognized the flashes of hair to be Matthew and Jay dancing towards the very back. Devin made furious eye contact with Gina, who smirked triumphantly. Her friends had one-upped her, and it wasn’t like Gina had forgotten about the whole ‘Slut’ incident two years before, nor the ‘Bitch’ incident in eighth grade after Gina had accidentally spilled her lunch onto Lola’s skirt.

 

The song seemed to end before it truly began, and Gina found that losing herself into the fun of just jumping around awkwardly with Nick was the best way to spend the time they had to allot at the dance. Matthew and Jay had disappeared into thin air after slow dancing, and being teenagers with short attention spans, everyone had quickly forgotten. After all, they were playing _Bodak Yellow_ , even if all the curse words were censored. Shockingly, Andrew knew all the words. The four danced until Gina could feel her toes start to blister.

 

As they waited for their individual rides out towards the front of the school, Gina went over to where she saw Matthew and Jay stood underneath the large oak tree towards the soccer field, wishing them both goodbye and winking very obviously at their connected hands hidden by the shadows. Matthew’s blush was clear in the moon, and while Jay shouted a curse at her retreating back, Gina knew that the slight sadness over the fact they hadn’t outright told her would be soon overrun by the joy of just finally having a friend group to belong in. She fell asleep in the back of Nick’s minivan and woke up to a text from Matthew that simply said _Thank you._

 

**5: NICK (THE LAST ONE)**

So Nick was a little slower than the rest of his friends when it came to social cues. Was it really that bad? Besides, at least he could talk to girls. Andrew had been helpless for most of middle school, and it was by luck he’d found a girl who was just as awkward as he was to date. It didn’t matter he was the last of his friend group to figure out about Matthew and Jay. He just didn’t pay attention all that much, and why was that important to do? His friends deserved their privacy - well, when they weren’t trespassing onto his own.

 

Gina’s fifteenth birthday that following Spring was a Big Deal. First of all, Gina was pretty popular. Not because of her boobs, because all girls had them and Jessi had explained multiple times to Nick that while Gina’s birthday was a Big Deal, boobs were Not A Big Deal. Which, okay. He didn’t necessarily agree with that.

 

Anyway, due to his being the trophy boyfriend, he agreed to throw Gina’s birthday bash at his house, since hers was way too small to fit everyone she’d wanted to invite. And everyone could come anyway (cough Devin cough) because it was basically open season when you had a lot of friends. Even though Gina had admitted that she would have enjoyed just having their small friend group over to play Just Dance 2.

 

The party arrived in early March, when the flowers were beginning to grow. Nick’s parents, ever the supportive-if-not-uncomfortable people they were, had departed for a weekend vacation. Which meant it was full-on party time.

 

Cut to an hour into Gina’s birthday party, when they had about thirty more kids than expected and someone had once again brought along Cotton Candy Brandy, this time even staler than before. Nick had taken up to cowering in the corner of his dining room, just hidden enough to have a view of Gina and Jessi verusing one another in Wii Tennis, a large crowd of cheering kids surrounding them. There was Cotton Candy Brandy he was nursing in his cup, but he hadn’t dared to drink any after what happened last time. He did stupid things when he was drunk, the proof being in the last time at the theater party back in seventh grade.

 

“You look like you’re having a blast,” Andrew commented from where he had materialized beside Nick, kicking at Nick’s untied shoe with his own boot. “Why’re you sitting all the way out here?”

 

“I’m the bodyguard,” Nick replied, grumbling out the words into the collar of his shirt. His best friend rolled his eyes and picked up the back of Nick’s neck to make him stand up fully, ever the bigger of the two.

 

“Come on, join the crowd! It’s best out of eight,” Andrew invited with a wide-spread stance, pointing in the direction of the growing crowd. Nick grimaced and shook his head. Since when was Andrew into partying/being a part of society? “Seriously, dude?”

 

“I’m having my own party,” Nick held up his cup and shook it as proof. Some Cotton Candy Brandy slushed over the sides and spilled out onto the wooden flooring. It burnt somewhat through the ground. Both boys ignored this. “Catch you later, though. I promise.”

 

“If you’re sure…” Andrew drifted off. Nick nodded again, this time more forcefully. His best friend shrugged, and strolled back towards the crowd, disappearing despite how tall he was. Nick finally gave in and took a sip. He grimaced. Tasted like dirty gym socks.

 

Upstairs was quieter than the first level. Most kids hadn’t realized they could go over the dog gate (for the nonexistent dog) and up to the second floor, so there weren’t too many kids. The bathroom was clogged, though, a kid passed out in the tub while two goth girls did each other’s makeup on the sink. Nick just waved, and shut the door behind him, leaving his cup of Cotton Candy Brandy on the carpeting flooring so he wouldn’t have to deal with it anymore. He’d left all but the master bedroom locked, just in case someone had been planning to take a shit on his computer like last time.

 

He found himself wandering through the hallway of baby pictures, reminiscing over his childhood. It had been a good time, a fairly easy time. There were plenty of pictures of young him with an equally as young Jessi and Andrew, arms around one another, swimming in the community pool, hiking along the nature trails towards the back of their suburban town. Nick’s father had even hung up a few pictures of Jay, his first magic show, all bright-faced and tiny in the bright lights of the town hall. It made him smile, if not long for the past. It had been easier, hadn’t it? A distant scream interrupted his daydreaming, one that was eerily familiar.

 

 _“Holy fucking shit!”_ Yep. That was Jay, coming from somewhere deep within the maze that was Nick’s house. What was happening? Was he being murdered? He certainly sounded like he was. Absentmindedly, Nick glanced around at his surroundings as if half-expecting for Jessi or someone else to show up and take care of the situation for him. Dealing with Jay problems had never been his prerogative.

 

 _“If you would stop squirming, maybe it wouldn’t hurt as much!”_ A voice answered in return, just angry enough to sound like Matthew. Hey, it was Matthew! Was he murdering Jay? He certainly spent enough time with him to justify it, so if Nick found Jay bleeding out with Matthew holding a knife in his hand, he wouldn’t really blame him. Morbid, okay. Jesus Christ.

 

 _“You stop squirming - oh, FUCK!”_ Jay’s reply dipped into a high-pitched scream. Nick finally shook himself out of his stupor enough to continue down to the cracked open door to his parent’s bedroom, which was the only viable option for them to be in. Downstairs, something made out of glass crashed, and Jessi shouted up a curse that’s non-repeatable, even in a fanfiction.

 

 _“Stop crying, it’s only a little blood,”_ Matthew snarked, but he sounded concerned, which was weird for him. There was a scuttling noise and another clatter from downstairs. A bunch of kids whooped excitedly. Nick peered around the door to find the room in pitch darkness - no one in there but Judd, who was lying underneath the bed. But there was a light on in the master bathroom.

 

 _“I’m gonna die!”_ Jay whined, cutting himself off after a response from Matthew that was too soft to hear from behind the door. Nick furrowed his eyebrows. _Was_ Matthew murdering Jay?

 

“Coming in!” He announced at the last minute, not wanting to catch Matthew off-guard and end up being his next victim. Nick shoved open the closed bathroom doors, blinking in shock at the sight he saw.

 

Jay was sat up on the counter, right ear bleeding profusely. Beside him stood Matthew, a swab of cotton in one winter glove-covered hand, the other gripping onto Jay’s. Both boys stared back.

 

“What. The. Hell,” Nick finally managed to get out. Matthew and Jay shared a look, which wasn’t fair, because why could they talk telepathically like that right in front of him?

 

“What does it look like I’m doing, Purse Dog?” Matthew replied, pursing his lips together in that way he did whenever he wanted to look non-bothered by something. Still, there was a sense of resignment in his eyes. Their connected hands didn’t drop, which, WOW, Nick hadn’t even taken in the fact that they were fucking holding hands. “I’m piercing his ear, dumbass.”

 

“He’s trying to kill me,” Jay whined again, making a grabby hand at Nick with his free one, the other tightening its grip on Matthew’s non-gloved one.

 

“You wanted me to do this, shithead, so shut up,” Matthew hissed and turned his gaze away from Nick to stare directly at Jay’s bleeding earlobe, as if anxious around the other boy. Which was weird, because as far as Nick knew, Matthew had never been nervous around him before. Unless…

 

“Why are you getting your ear pierced, Jay?” Nick let out a long, drawn-out sigh, a familiar noise when it came to Jay. The boy in question let out a huff that dragged on into a whimper as Matthew began to continue dabbing at his wounded ear.

 

“Because they look cool,” Jay grumbled out, wincing when Matthew dropped the cotton ball back into the sink. There was relatively less blood now, and through the red, Nick could see the familiar glint of an earring. Like a pirate.

 

“You look like a pirate,” Nick told him, because he did. Jay gave him a large grin, while Matthew rolled his eyes at the two of them.

 

“Fuck yeah, dude! Pirates are badass!” Jay cheered. Below them, in the living room, a large group of people booed.

 

“I’m sorry, Nick, why’d you come in here?” Matthew asked him rudely, and while Nick wasn’t very observant, he could tell when a friend was retreating back into their shell. Matthew, having turned out to be a very close pal in the past few years, had changed quite a bit. This was no longer the normal Matthew. Something was going on.

 

“I was just wandering around,” Nick shrugged, eyes dropping back down to Jay and Matthew’s connected hands. Both boys seemed to realize they were still holding hands, and simultaneously, dropped them. He turned to leave but looked back at his two friends before he did so. “I’m happy for you guys, just so you know. And we’d be fine with it.”

 

“Fine with what?” Jay furrowed his eyebrows, but he was smiling softly, happily. Nick just shrugged again and walked out of the bathroom. Through the mirror on the other side of his parent’s bedroom, he could see both Judd’s weird yellow cat eyes and that Jay and Matthew were once again holding hands, their bickering filtering back out of the room by the time Nick reached the top of the stairs.

 

“Where have you been? I’ve been looking for you everywhere!” Gina called excitedly from the bottom, waving around the Wii remote in her hand. “Come on, Andrew promised he’d face the winner after we play a round!”

 

Nick nodded and walked down the stairs. Gina frowned in confusion.

 

“What’s up with you?” She asked. He stuttered for a moment, and then grinned widely, taking the offered Wii remote thankfully.

 

“Nothing. It’s great,” He replied, and let his girlfriend lead him off to play Wii. And he didn’t say anything either, when Jay came into school the next Monday with a shining piercing in his right ear, matching Matthew’s own.

 

**1: JAY AND MATTHEW (COMING OUT)**

Matthew had, technically, known Jay for his entire fifteen years of life. They’d met in kindergarten, both stuck inside for recess. Jay had been busted for trying to chase the girls and kiss them on the playground, while Matthew’s offense had been profanity on the desks. Crazy, right? Even crazier still that they didn’t become true friends until seventh grade despite their surprisingly amount of similarities.

 

Jay kissed him for the first time during a game of Smooch Or Share. Then they had kissed again in the gym later that night as the gym caught on fire around them, and then again in the boy’s bathroom at the town bowling alley, and then again during the town’s 4th of July Fireworks, and again and again until it became an unquestionable routine. Jay asked him to go to the movies at the end of summer, and it started _something. '_ Something' meaning that there’d been no label up until Halloween, when Jay had bargained for the spot of Matthew's boyfriend in exchange with the shaving of his unibrow. It'd been a fair deal, despite the shit Matthew had to put up with afterwards.

 

Now, around seven months after that, Jay and Matthew were sat thigh-to-thigh across from all of their closest friends in a dirty booth at the back of T.G.I. Fridays, neither saying a word despite their usual talkativeness.

 

“So...why did you text us to meet you guys here?” Gina finally asked the two of them, fingers fiddling with the paper cover of her lemonade straw.

 

“You know, I just assumed it was to sit in silence. ‘Cause that’s all we’ve been doing for the past fifteen minutes,” Nick snarked, Jessi smirking in agreement from her spot by the window. Matthew rolled his eyes.

 

“If I wanted to sit in silence, I wouldn’t have invited you,” Jay replied annoyedly, and Matthew rested a hand against his shoulder calmingly. Unbeknownst to them, all five of their friends singularly expressed looks of varying emotions.

 

“I thought-” Matthew cut himself off at Jay’s glance his way. “ _We_ decided that it was time to tell you something we’ve been hiding for about a year now.”

 

“One of you has a terminal illness,” Missy guessed, lisp causing spit to fly into the onion rings. Matthew blinked in slight surprise, though it was a response to be expected from her.

 

“No?” Jay replied. “Me and Matt - we’re dating.” Both boys tensed, awaiting the reactions from their friends. Shockingly, all replied instantaneously.

 

“I knew it!” Jessi cried out triumphantly.

 

“Was it even a secret?” Gina muttered.

 

“I thought that was already an established fact,” Missy frowned in confusion.

 

“Are we supposed to be surprised?” Andrew whispered to Nick, who shrugged non-committedly. Matthew raised his eyebrows, Jay’s jaw dropping open slightly.

 

“How did you all fucking know already?” Jay screeched, earning a few looks from the families sat around them.

 

“Sorry guys, but it’s...really obvious,” Gina let out a hissed breath through her teeth, shrugging (creepily) in the same fashion of her boyfriend.

 

“What-when did you figure it out?” Matthew asked in disbelief. He’d been so, so sure they were keeping it hidden. It’d taken _weeks_ to convince Jay not to kiss him in public. All five exchanged various glances amongst themselves.

 

“I figured it out at Jessi’s birthday party last week,” Nick raised his hand. “Caught Matthew piercing Jay’s ear.”

 

“Is that sanitary?” Andrew wondered, and Matthew kicked at his leg under the table.

 

“Fuck off. You’re the one who was sent to jail since a bunch of murdered women were full of your semen,” Jay shot back, and he and Matthew high-fived smugly.

 

“Well, I realized it at the Snowball. They were dancing together!” Gina hummed proudly, folding her arms across her chest.

 

“I knew when we first went roller-skating,” Missy added on, waving her hands to get everyone’s attention.

 

“Halloween,” Andrew supplied. “What? They had on a couple’s costume!”

 

“I guess I’m the winner here,” Jessi raised her hand with a telltale smirk. “I’ve known since last year, at the PMoA, so suck on that!”

 

“How? We weren’t even fully dating then,” Matthew gasped, and Jessi shrugged, looking all-too smug.

 

“I have my ways,” She responded. “What’s my prize? Bragging rights?”

 

“No, wait, I’m still getting over the fact you knew about Matt and I before we even knew about us,” Jay shook her off.

 

“Yeah, how were you able to tell?” Matthew asked, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

 

“I’m fucking physic,” She tapped her forehead as proof. Gina rolled her eyes.

 

“You know, you could totally market that,” Nick suggested from his seat. Jessi shot him an unimpressed look and leaned on her elbows to fully face him.

 

“Yeah? And what would I call it? _Physic Readings On Whether Or Not Your Friends Are Dating_?” Jessi snarked, and Gina covered up Nick’s ears playfully.

 

“Hey, stop beating up my boyfriend! He’s already got enough to deal with!” Gina defended him, a soft smile coming onto her face.

 

“What the hell does that mean?” Nick asked.

 

“I think you know exactly what it means,” Gina snickered through her teeth, raising one hand over his head to represent his height, and he shoved her playfully. As the group fell into the normal craziness of a hangout session, Matthew felt Jay’s hand snaking onto his thigh. Their fingers linked together lightly, reassuringly.

 

“Holy shit, who just threw their water at me?”

 

The two boys shared a secretive smile over their burgers, and agreed, silently, that it was the best response they were going to get from their friends. And, honestly, it’d been the only response they were looking for.


End file.
